


dive start (into love)

by dizzy



Category: Glee RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-19 08:40:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13120152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dizzy/pseuds/dizzy
Summary: Chris really doesn't want to have to take his sister to swim practice there times a week... until he sees the lifeguard, and suddenly he doesn't mind at all.





	dive start (into love)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [scatterthestars](https://archiveofourown.org/users/scatterthestars/gifts).



Chris gets his first boyfriend the summer he turns seventeen. 

Looking back, he's not really sure how it happened. It feels like it took a century and happened in the blink of an eye all at the same time. 

*

It starts because Hannah is obsessed with taking swim lessons at the community pool. It doesn't matter that it's December and that even in California, December is an odd time to decide you need to learn how to swim. 

Especially when you already know how to swim. 

But safety is important, Hannah had told their mom, and their mom didn't really seem to hear anything besides the fact that she might have the opportunity to get both of her children out of the house for an hour three times a week - 

Because Hannah can't go alone, of course. She's too young, their mother tells Chris. It's too far of a walk, and Chris has a car now. 

(That fucking car that they definitely only bought him to send him on errands and make him play taxi driver for a twelve year old.) 

* 

Chris understands about two minutes after walking into the pool area exactly why his sister is suddenly obsessed with her swimming lessons. 

Chris also wishes he hadn't thought going for a swim in one of the smaller pools was a good idea, because he's already taken his shirt off and he definitely, definitely wishes that he hadn't. He even considers how conspicuous it would look if he pretends there's a draft and puts it back on. Then maybe adds a jacket on top. 

Sitting atop the lifeguard stand is a cute boy that Chris has definitely never seen, with dark curls and tanned skin and at least seven hairs on his chest. 

Chris has none. Not a single chest hair. Not even a hint. 

His father always pats him sympathetically on the shoulder and says that it’ll happen eventually, that he was a late bloomer too but by the time he was twenty five he could grow a beard the envy of other men world wide. It’s not nearly as comforting as his dad thinks, because he’s only seventeen and promising that eventually he’ll hit puberty doesn’t seem like the best come on line.

Especially not with dreamboat lifeguards like this one. 

*

The lifeguard’s name is Darren, Hannah tells him, and it turns out that Hannah might be average when it comes to swimming but she's a first class student and bona fide expert on the topic of Lifeguard Darren. 

She's not the only one. From the moment Darren takes his seat every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for a shift that starts at four - the same time as Hannah's class begins - his lifeguard chair is surrounded by a tiny swarm of lip gloss wearing, gum popping, barely developed adolescents testing out their newfound hormonal awareness of the opposite sex. 

And Chirs.... 

Does not blame them one bit. If anything, he has to commend them - even Hannah - on their good taste. 

Not that Chris is going to tell her that. Being a teenager is hard enough without coming out to his sister through a comical cartoonish reaction of his tongue unfolding from his mouth and rolling across the floor at the sight of a cute boy. Maybe one day they’ll have that kind of relationship, but right now she’s twelve and he’s got more self-preservation than that. 

So he keeps his mouth shut while she gushes about how Darren is twenty and he’s from San Francisco and he lives with his grandma and sometimes his grandma sends cookies with him and he hands them out and sometimes he has his guitar, and and and, and. 

(And: Chris is still angry that his car was a tool of indentured slavery but he stops complaining about the swim lessons at least, and begins to accept with something more like ease the fact that he's being paid babysitting wages to spend that hour three times weekly staring at a complete dreamboat perched on a tall white chair while they listen to the shrieks of children accuse each other of peeing in the pool.) 

* 

Darren doesn’t actually teach Hannah’s swim class. It's probably a good thing, Chris thinks; a cute twenty year old guy touching a bunch of twelve year olds who happen to also be throwing themselves at him seems like a bad mix. 

The class is taught by a woman in her forties that is probably very good at her job, and probably dislikes very much that all her students keeps migrating to one specific side of the pool and at least once per lesson pretend to be having trouble staying afloat in hopes of getting a look at Darren doing his Baywatch-best dive into the water to save them. 

It also means that Darren spends the entire hour sitting up there, sunglasses on his face and red shorts clinging to his hips and his stupid pretty face being stupid and pretty. 

He tries not to stare. He really does. 

And he really fails. 

But Chris can’t even tell if Darren notices him staring all the time, since he can’t see where Darren is looking. It's frustrating enough that he swears to himself he'll stop looking, but. But... 

Every time his mind starts to wander and his eyes drift off the page of the book he brings with him they always drift to the exact same spot. 

*

Hannah notices, even if Darren doesn’t. 

“Why are you being weird and looking at him all the time?” She asks.

“I’m not,” Chris says, face burning. “I don’t know what you think I’m looking at, but it isn’t him.” 

She stares at him like she doesn’t believe him, but also doesn’t know why he’d lie. She's only twelve. They're good kids who go to church with their family once a week. The word gay doesn't exist in their home, except when his dad makes a passively patronizing remark about someone on television. 

He feels flush with humiliation. His heart pounds and for a second he wonders what she’d say if he really did tell her the truth. But - she’s twelve, and keeping secrets (especially from their parents) isn’t something that comes easily to her. 

Maybe one day they’ll have that kind of relationship, he thinks again, but today is still not that day. 

And it's not like it matters. Darren's probably straight, anyway. 

*

"Hey, man. Anyone sitting here?" 

Chris’s head jerks up. Darren the dreamboat is beside him, holding a wrapped Subway sandwich in one hand and a soft drink in the other. 

“Uh.” Chris glances around, expecting to find all the other tables somehow full. Surely that's the only way Darren would be voluntarily asking Chris if they can sit together. 

They’re completely empty. There’s one mother writing in a day planner at a table about forty feet away.

Maybe Darren just wants Chris to leave? Maybe this is Darren's special favorite table? Maybe- 

Darren keeps standing there, looking expectantly. "So... can I join you? Or am I like, interrupting something?" 

“No. I mean. Yes. Sure,” Chris finally says, shutting his book. His stomach is doing backflips and his palms are already sweating. What is this, why is this happening?. "Sit. Please." 

“Awesome!” Darren beams at him. “You’re Hannah’s brother, right?"

How does he know that? 

Actually, Chris thinks, maybe that's not so surprising. Hannah does like to talk. To anyone, to everyone, about anyone and everyone. She gets it from their mother. 

"I am," he says, and then flounders, because what else is there to say? Words are hard. 

"I've got a brother," Darren says, peeling back the wrapper of his sandwich and taking a huge bite. There's lettuce and mayo on the corner of his mouth. It's kind of disgusting. "He's older. He'd never have been cool enough to bring me to lessons. Maybe it's because I bug the shit out of him though. Like, full disclosure, still do." 

"Oh," Chris says. Then some part of his brain kicks in that tells him maybe he should respond with more than single syllable words. "Hannah's annoying, but I guess she's okay. My mom is paying me to stay with her, at least." 

"Sweet! Get that cash," Darren says. "That's what I'm doing working here. I did a year of college last year and burnt out, like, made some bad life choices. So my parents were cool about it and let me spend a few months traveling around Italy and when I got back home to the states I thought... I am just not into this college thing yet, I'll go back next year, and came to hang with my grandma for a while." 

"Oh," Chris says. 

Darren takes another bite of his sandwich. "Yeah."

"What were you studying?" Chris asks. 

"Theater. I'm into that whole scene, drama and musicals and shit." 

"I love musicals," Chris says, voice betraying his attempt to keep cool by rising a little at the end of his sentence. "I'm obsessed with Wicked right now."

Darren breaks out into a rendition of Popular and, when later pressed, Chris confesses that's the moment he thinks he started to fall in love. 

*

The strange encounter happens again two days later. 

Then again two days after that. 

Then again, and again, and again. 

Chris does think to wonder why Darren's eating a sandwich every day at a quarter til five and, when later pressed, Darren will admit that he started taking his lunch break less than an hour into his shift just to get fifteen minutes a day to talk to Chris. 

*

There's an all day unofficial swim meet on a Saturday. 

Chris's mom will be there. So will his dad. The point is less competition and more to show the parents what kind of progress their children are making, and beg some extra donations for community pool upkeep and upgrades that are in the work. 

Chris doesn't have to go. His mom even tells him he can stay home if he wants. 

He says he's got nothing better to do, acting like he's far more bothered than he is. 

*

It's worth the strange looks his parents give him when he walks in and Darren gives him a great big smile. "Hey, man! I didn't know if you'd be here!" 

"Yeah. I, uh." Chris decides to divert that sentence, given that he's got no idea how to finish it. "Are you working?" 

"Nah." Darren's smile seems something - nervous? uncomfortable? - for just a millisecond. "Just like, you know. Hanging around. Cheering the kids on." 

"Don't cheer too loud for any specific one," Chris says. "You'll start a riot. Preteen mob scene. Bloodshed-" 

"Shut up," Darren says, playfully pushing Chris. It's not the first time Chris has teased Darren about all his tiny admirers. "Anyway, Hannah's my favorite." 

"Oh, God," Chris groans, covering his hands with his face. "Please don't tell her that. Also, why?" 

Darren reaches up and curls his fingers around Chris's wrists, tugging until Chris uncovers his face. "Because she's the one with the awesome brother." 

"Oh." Chris says, but his face his red, and he can't stop smiling. 

*

They end up in one of the rooms marked employees only. Chris isn't entirely sure what's going on but his stomach is full of furious butterflies and it feels an awful lot like Darren might be here for the same reason Chris is... and that neither of them want to see the swim meet. 

"This is just a supply closet but there's a fridge in here and we're allowed to help ourselves to snacks while we're working," Darren says, popping the tab on a soft drink. 

"You're not working," Chris points out. 

Darren shrugs and grins at him. "I'm a rule breaker. You want something?" 

Chris helps himself to a diet coke. When he closes the fridge door, Darren has hopped up on top of a filing cabinet. Chris says a silent prayer he won't fall or somehow embarrassingly injure himself while trying, then hops up beside Darren. 

He makes it, and manages to not even spill his drink. 

* 

“So,” Darren says, swinging his feet beside Chris’s so that their shoes bump together. “Cool if I kiss you now?” 

“What?” Chris gawks at him, heart pounding. 

“I was just like… getting some vibes…” Darren starts to look apologetic. “If I’m reading this whole thing totally wrong then I’m sorry, man, I just-” 

Chris lunges forward and smashes his lips against Darren’s. 

It’s definitely his first kiss. 

It’s definitely awful. 

But Darren grins and takes him by the shoulders and pushes him back slightly, then leans in with much more grace and dignity than Chris. “Like this,” he murmurs in a low voice, and then presses both lips against Chris’s bottom one, sucking slightly. He moves back almost imperceptibly then in again, catching Chris’s full mouth with a soft press, moving his lips until Chris gets the hang of it and starts to kiss back. 

*

They spend the next thirty minutes kissing and talking and kind of just giggling and grinning at each other. It's stupid, but Chris doesn't feel stupid, not with Darren looking at him like that. Not with the way Darren's arm goes around his waist and the way Darren uses both hands to help Chris jump down when the meet is almost over or the way Darren's hands slide down into Chris's back pockets when he steals a hug goodbye. 

*

He's nervous as fuck when he takes Hannah to swim practice, because it's Monday and he kissed Darren on Saturday and he hasn't talked to Darren since because he's an idiot who forgot to get Darren's phone number, and even more than that a coward who probably wouldn't have had the balls to ask for Darren's phone number even if he had remembered. 

But Darren sees him and waves and grins and he's not wearing sunglasses today so every time Chris looks his way he can see that Darren's looking back. 

They only have that fifteen minutes, but it's enough time for a few quick kisses in a dusty supply closet and to exchange numbers. 

*

Chris home like there are clouds beneath his feet, except for the part where he steps in gum but even that doesn’t make him nearly as mad as it would have any other day. 

Darren’s already texted him twice. The first is a picture of someone else’s dog, with a small bio of the dog including name breed and how he licked Darren’s face twice. The second says you’re a fast learner btw ;) - which makes Chris’s face go bright read and he’s sure that looks totally strange to the mother pushing a stroller who walks by him but he doesn’t even care about that either. 

*

Chris has his first date a week later. 

Chris isn’t sure if he can really call it a date at the time, but they it happens on a Thursday night and he spends an hour trying to decide which of his almost identical pairs of jeans makes his butt look nicest. 

They see a movie and Darren buys popcorn and red vines and shares them both with Chris. They like all the same parts of the movie and spend half an hour talking about it afterwards as they get milkshakes and Chris tries not to feel like everyone is staring at him. He tries not to feel like everyone knows that they're not just two guys hanging out and that they are in fact two boys who have definitely had their tongues in each others mouths. 

And who, Chris hopes, will have their tongues in each others mouths again soon. 

*

"Do I get a second date?" Darren says when he drops Chris off, after ten minutes of making out in Darren's front seat. 

Chris goes to sleep that night with the word date lit up in neon in the eye of his mind. 

*

"So you and Darren are friends now, right?" Hannah asks. 

He thinks about telling her again. He thinks about what would happen if she told their parents. He thinks about how terrifying the preacher at their church is, and whether his grandmother would be disappointed in him. 

Not yet, he thinks. He needs to get past the existential terror of having his first relationship before he moves onto the existential terror of coming out to his family. He's only seventeen. There's plenty of time. 

"Yeah," he says.

She gets an immediate gleam in her eye. "You should invite him over some time then." 

Chris starts to roll his eyes but then he figures - well. She's just provided him with the perfect excuse. 

*

He tells his mom that night that he's made a new friend, someone who works at the pool. 

All he has to do is get Darren's name out before Hannah's taking off at full verbal speed. Without Chris having to say a single word, his mother adapts quickly to the idea that Darren might be hanging around sometimes and why according to Hannah that's the Best Thing Ever. 

"He doesn't encourage her, does he?" His mom asks when Hannah's not listening. "Crushes are fine and all, but-" 

"No, Mom," Chris immediately says. "He's just a nice guy. All the little girls like him and he's really nice to all of them. She could have a worst first crush." 

(And so, Chris thinks, could be.) 

*

Two months later: 

“Hey, Hannah banana,” Darren says. 

She beams at him. “I had the best time for our backstroke today.” 

“Awesome!” He holds up a hand and high fives her. 

She’s adapted pretty well to seeing Darren both more clothed and hanging around their house on a regular basis. Her crush has dimmed but Chris's hasn't. In fact, he's done nothing but fall harder and harder. He's trying not to think about what spring will bring with it and if Darren will leave and what happens when Chris graduates - 

He's just enjoying this in the moment... and being very glad that Hannah’s got a busy schedule that keeps their mom out of the house a lot, even with Chris still voluntarily taking her to swim. 

Chris has even joked to Darren about signing his sister up for a couple extra things himself so they can have even more alone time. 

“As long as the coaches aren’t cuter than me,” Darren had said, with a wink and a kiss.


End file.
